A/N: Need…sugar…need…rush. Need…rehab? But anyway, thanks for all your reviews! Looks like I won't be pausing this fic Need…sugar…need…soda. Soda! Soda! Soda! Soda! Soda! Soda! ((passes out))


Evan slammed the door behind him, his heart thundering in his chest. He'd rushed up the stairs to his apartment, only to find that the crones had taken the elevator. He had to dodge the swings of their household weapons as he ran to his door. Now they were outside banging on it, their old voices shrill with crazed anger. Hopefully someone would come and take them away.

He slowly backed away from the door and dropped his skateboard next to the living room table. How'd he get himself into so much trouble? Logan would never let them return to the institute at this rate, and Rogue would be furious. Evan snorted bitterly. Maybe not. She'd probably be all right with it as long as she could keep seeing her new boyfriend.

Whatever, he thought wearily and walked toward his room.


Remy fiddled with his retractable pole, bored. He was sitting in the main room of the Acolytes' hideout. John was lying on the couch conjuring fire figures, equally bored. Remy glanced to his left and saw Piotr sitting in a corner, quietly reading a book. Magneto hadn't required their services for quite a while, and the atmosphere had been dull.

Finally, Remy tossed the pole aside and stood up. "Remy be goin for a walk now."

"To spy on the sheila?" John asked, still focused on his figures.

"Oui."

Piotr glanced up after turning a page. "The strange, quiet girl?"

"Oui."

"Oh." He looked back down at his book, quickly losing interest in his teammates.

"Why do you bother?" John demanded. "She's a gothic bitch who hates you."

"All part of the fun, mon ami. Adieu." He turned and left.

The minutes went by in silence after the Cajun's departure. The only sounds were the soft hiss of the fire and the occasional turning of a page.

John eventually got irritated enough to blow out his figures and sit up. He glared at the Russion. "Why don't we go find some action, mate? This dump's a bore…and so are you whenever your nose gets stuck in a book. Like now."

Piotr shook his head without looking up. "You go ahead. I want to finish this."

"Come on! Have a little fun once in a while! We could trash the park or scare the people at the mall into crapping! It'll be awesome!"

"My mother brought me up better than that. You go on. Just leave me out of it."

John's mouth dropped open as he stared at his friend in disbelief. Piotr…a mama's boy? The guy sure didn't look like one.

"You can't be serious."

Piotr glanced up, now feeling a little annoyed. "Why not? In Russia my parents taught me to be a sensible and moral person."

"More like a dull and boring person…" John muttered.

"I heard that."

"Well did you feel very moral when you pounded the X-Men and the Brotherhood?"

Piotr flushed and raised his book higher over his face. "There I had no choice. I felt terrible, of course, but Magneto–"

"Magneto, Magneto…why do you take that guy's shit, anyway?"

Piotr scowled and reverted to his metal form, the process echoing through the large room. "Because otherwise, he'd twist me into a pretzel. Like so." He reached for Remy's pole and, using just the fingers of his right hand, deformed it into a bent and twisted puzzle.

"Remy's gonna be pissed."

"I will give him my apologies."

"Well, I see your point. About the Magneto thing, I mean." John shuffled his feet. "So you're here because of blackmail? Magneto will crush you like a tin can if you don't do what he says?"

"It's not only that. He is threatening to harm my family as well."

"Oh, right. Forgot about that. Sorry, mate."

"Don't worry about it," Piotr said and returned to his normal form. "Now go on. I will stay here and finish my book."

"Well okay, then." John waved goodbye and walked toward the exit. The park sounded like a good place to cause trouble.


"Remy LeBeau? That bastard talked to you?" Rogue asked Hakan.

He nodded as they passed by the fountain. "I take it you don't like him much?"

She scowled. "No. The ass has been spying on me lately, and I'm not even sure if he's reporting to his leader or just doing it for personal reasons. Either way, it freaks me out."

Hakan smiled to himself, relieved that she wasn't interested in the charmer. "So, next topic. How long till you and Evan move back to your institute?"

"I don't know. Whenever Logan damn feels like letting us back, I guess," she replied.

"Logan?"

"Oh, he's one of the older –probably oldest– mutants living there. He acts like a father to me, and he can do a hell of a job of it sometimes."

"I see."

Rogue brushed her hair from her face when a gentle breeze blew against her. "He's the one who taught me to ride."

"Really?" Hakan perked up in interest.

"Yeah. The man's annoyingly strict and protective sometimes, but he's a good guy."

"Think Eyrie can handle him?"

Rogue grinned. "Yeah. Your brother's really nice. It kind of surprised me."

"How come?"

"Well, I guess I didn't expect someone with powers like that to be a nice person. But I'm probably just thinking about me."

"You don't think of yourself as nice?" Hakan asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"No. I act like a bitch to most people."

"Well you're pretty nice to me."

Rogue grinned again. "Something about you dispels my bitchiness and brings out my softie side."

"I'm special, huh?" he asked, smiling back at her.

"Hn. Maybe," she replied teasingly.

He mocked a gasp. "Did Rogue just tease me? Yes! I may now die a happy man. Come, let us find a cliff from which I may dive, reveling in this momentous happiness. No, really. Come on."

She actually laughed out loud at that. He watched her, a soft look in his eyes. It gave him a mysterious joy to watch her happy. It was as if…she needed to be that way. More often.

"Caraway, you're a riot."

"I am, aren't I?"

"Well, we should go before it gets too cold–"

Insane laughter from the other side of the park cut her off. She whirled around and spotted Pyro A.K.A. St. John Allerdyce blowing fire at people. They screamed and ran away from the giant flame horse he'd created.

"Ugh, Pyro!" Rogue growled in disgust.

"You…have some very interesting friends, Rogue," Hakan remarked as he watched the fire horse stampede around the park.

"He ain't my friend, he's with Remy," she said and stalked over.

Hakan followed her, wondering exactly how many enemies she had.

"PYRO!" she yelled.

The Australian turned and grinned when he saw her. "Well, if it isn't the sheila. Remy went out to find you earlier." His gaze went to Hakan. "And this must be your human boyfriend. I thought Remy made it clear that you're not supposed to be with her, mate."

"And I thought I made it clear that he can't get rid of me so easily," Hakan shot back and stepped closer to Rogue.

"You should be glad that it's me you're telling that. Remy's been in a pissy mood lately, and he wouldn't hesitate to charge your ass and blow you up. I, on the other hand, just want some fun." He redirected his fire horse to charge at them.

"I'm not letting you or any other damn Acolyte ruin my evening, you got that?" Rogue shouted and, pushing Hakan from the horse's path, ran full speed toward John, taking off one of her gloves.

He tried to quickly turn his horse to burn her, but realized too late that he himself should have run for it. She leaped at him and tackled him to the ground, cutting off his fire supply and therefore vanishing his horse. Her hand pressed against his cheek, and they both felt the tug of her powers acting up as she absorbed him. Hakan watched this from the distance, shock in his eyes as she pulled her hand from John's face and staggered to her feet. John was unconscious on the ground.

Rogue walked over to Hakan and pulled her glove back on, but didn't help him up. Now that he's seen my power, he won't want to have anything to do with me.

"Sorry you had to see that," she muttered, not looking at him.

He stood up and reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't look so glum. I've seen my brother's powers work before and trust me, they're a lot worse. What, you think you scared me off? Besides, I think that Australian guy deserved it, and he'll survive, right?" He hoped that his lame reassuring words were enough to make her feel better.

They were.

Rogue looked up, the fire back in her green eyes. "Yeah, he did deserve it, didn't he? But I think we'd better take him somewhere. Everyone's staring."

Hakan looked around, and sure enough, the people who had seen it all were whispering to each other and pointing. Rogue glared at them; she'd saved their lives and all they thought about was the process by which she had done it. Hakan steered her away from them and picked up the unconscious boy. He then slung John over his shoulder and followed Rogue out of the park.

Remy, who had remained hidden in a tree, watched them leave. He didn't like how John had gotten involved with them, and he liked even less seeing the human still with Rogue. What did he have to do to force the guy to stay away from her?


Evan had changed into his bedclothes and was ready for bed. It had been a tiring day and he needed a little sleep. Say…thirteen hours? The crazy old women had left a few hours ago, yelling, "WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE, SONNY! WE'LL BE BACK!"

He was about to go into his room when a little white journal sitting at the end of the hall caught his eye. He approached it and picked it up, thinking that it was a school agenda that Rogue had dropped. Flipping through the pages, he looked to see if they had any homework. Not that it mattered to him; he wasn't the best student in the world and homework wasn't a part of his vocabulary. But if they wanted to return to the institute, they'd have to keep their grades up. Somehow. Through a miracle, maybe.

In his sleepy haze, the words were a blur. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the first page again…and blinked, startled. The words on the page had nothing to do with school at all. They were about a boy that Rogue was obviously interested in. Evan was suddenly wide awake as he went to the living room and sat down on the couch to read the journal, all respect for other peoples' privacy gone from his mind. The first entry read:

((I shouldn't have snapped at him. Why did my life have to get so complicated? He's probably mad at me now. It wasn't as if I wanted to leave him like that…I was just too upset to explain further. Just when I admit to myself that I like him, he's mad at me. This is all Logan's fault. If it hadn't been for him, I would still be at home, waiting for the right moment to tell that boy my feelings. Now I can't.))

Evan's brow furrowed. Did she mean…him? He remembered two nights ago how Rogue had slammed the door in his face after he'd declared his disapproval of her thinking about the Brotherhood. Was this entry about him? He flipped to the next page and read the second entry.

((Even as I climbed on Hakan's bike, I couldn't forget about him. What would he think if he knew where I was going with Hakan? Probably just concern for my safety. He hadn't actually told me he liked me, and he didn't show it either. So why do I feel like I betrayed him?))

Evan swallowed and read on. The second part of the entry was separated, as if she'd written it at a later time.

((Hakan took me…somewhere today. And never would I have guessed that I was…that I could…well, I wasn't regretting it. But I do feel like I'm betraying him…both of them. Whose heart do I really belong to?))

Say wha-? Evan thought in alarm. And what exactly was it that she'd done? The entry was based on last night, when she'd come home late…when he was worried about her. Was she…able to touch that Hakan guy? Did she…do something? With him? Evan felt jealousy, a sharp streak of it, fill his being. Okay, he admitted it: he liked Rogue. But what now? She was getting to like Hakan. Evan raised an eyebrow and grinned. Keyword: getting. That meant that he still had a chance.


A/N: This chapter was due to come out yesterday when it was my birthday, but I ended up writing another fanfic –Hi, I'm Baka– instead of working on this. Tomorrow I have school so I'll be able to brainstorm the next chapter instead of listening to my boring teachers yap about pointless crap ((ooooo, I'm a poet ")).